Except that the first post was a question, which could have been answered in the negative. Newspapers use that to make a deniable headline all the time.
Once he confirmed the rumour, then it becomes a problem. It’s either true and the teacher behaved inappropriately with a student, or it’s false and he libelled her. But libel is a civil offence, surely?
Since when does “make out” contain any ambiguity regarding sexual intercourse? I’ve never known that term to include the possibility of sexual intercourse.
Something many seem to be ignoring is that the student was merely responding to a remark framed by somebody else. So the former is not really responsible for what was said by the latter, no matter how they respond to it. Affirming and/or denying anything in informal settings has no weight. Even if somebody directly implicates me in something serious, a response of “yeah, sure, whatever” is of a completely different order than me stating it explicitly myself.
Because you say so?
Social media is a form of self-publishing to the public at large. Confirming a rumor gives weight to the previously anonymous claim.
It doesn’t matter who says anything. It doesn’t say much of anything, because the implication was made by a different person, who was themselves responsible for that framing. There is no practical way to be responsible for what somebody else says.
Only if people believe what they read, which would be a critical thinking fail. It is not realistic for one to assume that they are interpreting everything they read at what they assume is “face value”, everything is subject to interpretation. No matter who says it.
This. Make Out means KISS, I’ve never heard it used to mean anything else. If something else happened people always said we made out AND __________.
This is an excellent point. The wrong person is being attacked by the school. They have no case because he didn’t even make the statement in question, all he made was a positive affirmation.
IF the school was social media savvy they should have created an account and responded using 2 words: “You’re Suspended”. 
I’m glad you’re here to disprove libel, but I’m sure these bogus appeals to “common sense” haven’t worked out so well in the past.
It means kiss primarily, but could infer general adolescent gropage if one was to be generous.
On a side tangent, I’m just glad the kid used the word “Actually” and not “Literally”…I didn’t know people even knew the word actually anymore.
Take the phone and give it back at the end of class. That’s been the standard method of dealing with distracting/disruptive toys in class since time immemorial. (They used to not even give the toy back, but a PDA is kind of essential outside of class, and expensive besides.)
Firstly, nothing is ever “proven”, there is only the best currently available evidence.
But more to the point, I think this is a misunderstanding of libel itself.
The legally indefensible publication or broadcast of words or images that are degrading to a person or injurious to his or her reputation.
Are the words “Actually, yes.” degrading in themselves? As an affirmation, they convey hardly any meaning. Because their only meaning is a reference to someone else’s question. This makes a real legal difference! If I am being asked about an alleged crime I committed, and my response is “Actually, yes”, this does not count as any sort of confession, which is why they press the person in question to say it explicitly.
“Yes, what? What exactly did you do?”
“Yes, I let the mice loose in Woolworths, it was me.”
People’s remarks can be misunderstood, which is why one-word replies are not conclusive of anything. And in this case, “making out” doesn’t even have an unambigous meaning either. Maybe they “made out” of the building when the bell rang. Or maybe they “made out” like bandits when they discovered a box of pens. Libel cannot rely entirely upon the reader’s imagination.
I am not going to whey into the details here, but in all my years of Making Out, watching people make out, measuring make outs, documenting a make sesh, or illustrating a makemake have I ever heard it confused with gropage.
If you groped or were groped, you say Second Base, manmeat, booya, or ya know… Grope.
Oblig kids these days
How is that her only option? She could affirm that she never made out with the student, the student affirms that he was joking and not making an accusation, everyone goes on summer vacation and forgets the whole thing.
Also, curious how [name of female teacher]'s thoughts on the matter seem to be absent.
Obviously women and their voices don’t matter. That’s why it’s important that we teach this kid that it’s okay to treat women - especially women in positions of authority - this way with impunity, apparently.
This complaint borders on, “Bob and Lisa sittin’ in a tree, K I S S I N G”.
Even in life or death war there is the concept of proportional force. Make the little dipshits apologize, and move on.
She was listed as 28 in an article, so probably not quite fresh out of school, however, probably still learning…
Edit:
She is the real victim.
Besides getting checked out by the police, it sounds like there was a backlash against her because of the admin’s overzealous response:
"She's not been offered an apology, she's been bullied and berated by students, and I know this has become difficult for her to even continue her teaching career, " Beahen said. "There is tragedy to what seems to be an innocent tweet on the outset, but one that has had rather devastating results."
The kid should have gotten the 5 day suspension that the school handbook calls for along with issuing a written and public apology. It would have been the scuttlebutt for a couple days and that would have been that.
They keep on saying that this was tweeted, but it was on ask.fm which is hardly the broadcast equivalent to twitter. This was a scribble on the school’s bulletin board, not a post on the front page of the local paper.
That doesn’t really work once something is in the public sphere like this. This sort of rumor/claim/insinuation ends careers. She cannot, for the sake or her own self-protection, ignore a public rumor of this sort. Not if she wants to keep her job (or job prospects).
I’d say she might be able to make a case that he (and the author of the preceding tweet) are both guilty of sexually harassing her. That, regardless of the device/network/time it was done, falls under the jurisdiction of the school, and in every school handbook ever is a heavy, heavy infraction.
So maybe that’s the tact school admin took here?
I’d also point out, for anyone still reading, that we’re likely hearing ONLY the side of the story from the student’s attorney. The school would offer no comment whatsoever, and the student’s attorney would be spreading their version of the story to anyone that will listen. So it’s not exactly impartial data we’re working with here…
[edit because i don’t type good]
Denying it wouldn’t be ignoring it.
I… Don’t agree. Do you assert that every rumor made by someone has credence?
I have heard public rumors about every teacher I had, and only one had a career ruined. When the police busted him for solicitation.
And I don’t believe things have changed that much, except for people that complicitly believe they have.
But IF the teacher did make out with the student, don’t they deserve their reputation trashed?
